Debi Brooks

 Debi Brooks, President and CEO, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Deborah W. Brooks is president and CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF). Before joining the Foundation in October 2000, Ms. Brooks spent nine years with Goldman, Sachs & Co. as vice president in the Fixed Income and Asset Management Divisions. Seeking to apply her strategic background and business acumen to the nonprofit sector, Ms. Brooks then shifted career focus, becoming head of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center and managing the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company prior to joining MJFF as founding executive director.

Under her leadership, MJFF has funded more than $90 million in research either directly or through partnerships, making it the single largest funder of Parkinson’s disease research outside the U.S. government.

Ms. Brooks sits on the Board of Directors of the Parkinson’s Action Network and on the External Advisory Board for Emory University’s Collaborative Center for Parkinson’s Disease Environmental Research. She also serves on the Board of Overseers of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a past member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council of the National Institutes of Health. She holds a BA in economics from the College of William and Mary, an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and an MS in marital and family therapy from Northwestern University.